Netanyahu: “A serious mistake” if Israel updates the US before attacking Iranian websites

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu hit the government Monday after a report said Israel consulted with the United States before launching attacks on an Iranian nuclear facility and missile base.

“I saw the report in the New York Times that Israel was informing the United States of its operations and plans against Iran. If this is true, then it is a grave mistake, ”Netanyahu said during a meeting of his Likud party in the Knesset.

According to Saturday’s report, Israel spoke with the US ahead of an attack in June on a Karaj facility used to build uranium enrichment centrifuges. It did so again before allegedly attacking a secret missile base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in September.

The Karaj strike came about 10 days after the power-sharing government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was sworn in, replacing Netanyahu as Prime Minister.

The New York Times report said the White House praised Bennett’s administration after the consultations “to be much more transparent” than Netanyahu had been.

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“It is no secret that the current government is opposed to an attack on Iran,” claimed Netanyahu during the group meeting. Its basis for this claim has not been clear as the current administration has reiterated the previous one in its aggressive stance towards Iran and its nuclear program.

Netanyahu continued, “Hence, Bennett and Lapid’s promise to give the US government advance notice and their ‘no surprises’ policy is an invitation to thwart any significant operation that can halt the nuclear program.”

The alleged centrifuge parts factory in Karaj near Karaj, Iran, can be seen in a photo posted online by Google user Edward Majnoonian in May 2019. (Screenshot / Google Maps)

Netanyahu previously attacked the government for agreeing on a policy of “no surprises” with the US. But under the previous administration, senior Israeli officials also agreed, in talks with the US, that there would be “no surprises” on the matter and that differences of opinion would be carried out behind closed doors, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to the Times of Israel at the time.

Since taking office, Bennett has generally adopted a stance on Iran similar to that of Netanyahu. Bennett, like Netanyahu, is against a US return to the deal and recently called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to immediately stop talks on reviving the deal instead of capitulating to Iran’s “nuclear blackmail”.

The main difference in the new administration’s policies was a stated desire to avoid public squabbles with the US, which were at the center when the original deal was negotiated by the Obama administration in 2015. Netanyahu gave a speech at a joint session of Congress – coordinated behind the back of then-President Barak Obama – in which he campaigned against the agreement. The treaty, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was nonetheless signed a few months later.

United States President Joe Biden (right) meets with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on August 27, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

The USA participated indirectly in the ongoing talks in Vienna because it withdrew from the agreement in 2018 under the then US President Donald Trump. US President Joe Biden has announced that he wants to get back into the deal.

After the US decision to withdraw and re-impose sanctions on Iran, Tehran restarted its nuclear program by enriching uranium above the thresholds allowed in the agreement. Iran has also denied access to its nuclear facilities to observers from the United Nations Nuclear Regulatory Agency, raising concerns about what the country is doing out of sight.

In the meantime, Israeli and American military leaders will discuss possible military exercises to practice destroying Iranian nuclear facilities in a possible worst-case scenario, a senior US official said.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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